Bandwidth blues in Norfolk mean no fight report tonight

Even echoing characters is taking seconds.  Back tomorrow with a report.

Home for hours

I'm spending about 16 hours at home before I leave tomorrow for an overnighter to, of all places, Norfolk.  The reason?  Great seats to a live UFC event--and at way cheaper prices than we've ever paid before.

One consequence of this brief time at home is that I have way too much to do in the time available, so I'm cutting this short and getting back to it.

It's been the kind of day that included only work

and I can't talk about that, so I'll leave you with a trailer for a movie I very much look forward to seeing next week when it opens.



I fear it won't be as much fun as the trailer suggests, but I'm going to hope that fear proves to be baseless.

Counter 3 . Five . VII continues to be Austin's best restaurant

When I learned recently that Executive Chef Damien Brockway had left Counter 3 . Five . VII (hereafter just "Counter"), I instantly had a few questions.  Would Counter stay in business?  Would the rest of the team there still get to keep doing the great work they've been doing, creating amazing food that was as interesting as it was delicious?  And, where was Damien going to work next, and when could I eat there?

I can't yet answer the last pair of questions, because I've found no evidence of what Damien's next project will be, but I'm happy to say that the answers to the other questions is a resounding, "Yes!" 

We ate dinner there earlier tonight, and every dish was delicious, thoughtful, and fun.  The housemade sodas were as tasty as ever, the team still fun to talk with, and the spirit of Counter alive and well.

As I've said many times, Counter is Austin's best restaurant.  If you live in Austin or are visiting it, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Austin turns chilly

I didn't expect this development. 

When I left on this long trip, the weather forecast showed Austin's high temperatures as being in the low eighties the whole time I was to be here.  That's about right for this time of year, so I packed only light, short-sleeve shirts.

That worked out fine yesterday, but today, as we were sitting in a patio at a business lunch, a front blew in, the temperatures fell, and it's stayed cool since then.  As I write this, it's 57 degrees out, and the high tomorrow is due to be 50. 

Fortunately (in this case), I don't get to walk much on these trips, and it's not cold enough to bother me, but still, I would have preferred it warmer.

Dinner tonight took us to Cooper's BBQ downtown, where we shared a lovely selection of barbecued meats and some spicy, bacon-and-jalapeno mac-and-cheese. 

Click the image to see a larger version.

It was all delicious.

Dessert was my traditional downtown fare:  some tasty ice cream at a nearby Amy's. 

Now, the hour is late and work still beckons, so back to it I go!

Back in Austin

I left the World Fantasy Con hotel this morning and drove the couple of hours from San Antonio to Austin and through to Round Rock.  The drive proved to be easy, fast, and pleasant. 

I've already had work meetings, barbecue, ice cream, and more work--not the most fun dessert, but it is what it is.

Amazingly, the weather here may turn cold.  I do seem to have a talent for picking odd weather times to be in Austin, having been here for snow storms and floods. 

Now, it's time to crash.

An odd pair

An odd pair of events formed the bookends of my day.

The first was the World Fantasy Con awards banquet.  As a couple hundred (my guess) of us gathered in a fairly low-ceiling room in the hotel watched from our tables after eating banquet food, our increasingly aged group presented its annual awards.  I was happy for the winners, and the food was surprisingly decent overall, so as award banquets go, it was okay. 

The other was a showing of Thor: Ragnarok at a nearby theater.  I enjoyed the movie a great deal and found it both as much fun and as vivid in imagery as the reviews have suggested.  I definitely recommend it. 

Tomorrow, I change cities and begin the usual rounds of meetings.